Tearful McGuire on air again after Adam Goodes King Kong slur: Collingwood board to meet today

Updated
Thu 30 May 2013, 1:28 PM AEST

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Watch Eddie McGuire on Triple M this morning

ABC News

Collingwood president Eddie McGuire cried on air this morning as he apologised once again for the racist on-air gaffe which could cost him his job.

McGuire is not ruling out standing down after his comments suggesting that Sydney Swans star Adam Goodes, one of Australia's most decorated Indigenous footballers, could be used in a promotional stunt for the King Kong musical.

The blunder re-ignited a racism row which had first erupted on Friday night when a young Collingwood fan called Goodes an "ape" during the Indigenous Round clash between the Magpies and the Swans.

The AFL has ordered McGuire to go through its racial vilification counselling program and McGuire will meet the Collingwood board today to discuss his position.

And he says he will step down from his media and leadership roles if required.

Key points

McGuire breaks down on air as he repeats apologies

Would not rule out resigning as Pies chairman

Collingwood board to meet today

Pies defender Harry O'Brien says community uneducated on race issues

This morning McGuire was back on Triple M , and described his original comment as "absolutely abhorrent".

And he broke down as he spoke about how he thought Goodes must be feeling.

"I made the blue yesterday, and I've explained the whole situation and all the rest of it," he said.

"It's really hard.... it's good to hear somewhere along the journey you've done something right as well. If I'm feeling it this morning, I can only imagine what Adam Goodes has felt all his life."

"People aren't taught about the struggles of other people, they're not taught about why someone would want to leave their country as a refugee or an asylum seeker," he said.

"They're not taught about the real history of Indigenous people, they're not taught about the population of Indigenous people in our jails, or the literacy and the numeracy rate that Indigenous people have.

"This is a national issue, and it starts at the top, and Eddie is good enough to see that he has made an error.

"But most people can't see that, so that's why I feel extremely strongly about this."

O'Brien defended McGuire, saying he "has done so much for my personal life and so much for so many people."

"But the issue for me is when its coming from a man as influential as Eddie, even though he's able to rectify the mistake he's made and apologise immediately, there is a multitude of people out there that can't see the connection as to why someone like myself or an Adam Goodes or any other person could find that offensive - and that’s where the casual undercurrent of racism lies."

Whateley says McGuire's contrition is genuine

ABC AFL commentator Gerard Whateley, who hosted McGuire and O'Brien on Fox Footy last night, said O'Brien's stand helped McGuire come to the conclusion his comments were racial vilification.

"[McGuire] was extremely emotional and I take that at face value, because if you think how Eddie has built his career ... he felt deeply the events of the weekend and I think he did an outstanding job in that 24 hours," Whateley said.

"Then to be on the other side of that debate, to cause [to] Adam Goodes what Sydney described as more emotional distress than had happened on the field on Friday night, he very much took that to heart.

"He'd been home to see his sons to explain what the firestorm was and that he had been entirely culpable and that he would have to attempt to make good on that.

"There's no dancing around how serious this is, there's no explaining it away.

I think once he's reached the point of accepting full culpability for it whilst reiterating his mitigation, I think it's an easier stand than trying to hold your ground and explain everything away."

Dodson says McGuire had 'frontal lobe malfunction'

Professor Mick Dodson, the director of the National Centre for Indigenous Studies at the Australian National University, says anyone who understood would not have made the gaffe.

Professor Dodson called the comments a "frontal lobe malfunction" and said Australia had to "own" the problem of racism.

"Australia has to accept it's got a problem with racism," he told ABC local radio in Melbourne.

"Until we do these sort of public displays of vilification, denegration are going to continue.

"My advice to Eddie is leave the comedy to comedians. This is not funny Eddie. If you understand racism you don't say things like that."